Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-08-02
DAILY HERALD.
DETECTIVE METHODS.
The Relatfonship Between Po-
lice and Criminals.

lice and Criminals.
Nothing better illustrates the new
relations between criminals and the
police than the curious features O
police work. No longer is the case
that the head OF a detective force, upor
being confronted with mysterious
crime, picks out q man in his com
mand and says:
Robinson, here is a. penknife and
pair of rubbers left by mysterious
murderer; take them and track him
down."
That was the old way lit still is in
the country, and man had to be Il
Vidocq to do the work. Persons now
adays who think the romantic detect.
i've work of fiction and the stage are
like the work of to-day marvel greatly
when they see stupid-looking, coarse,
clumsy fellow, such as some New York
detectives are, and say to themselves
Is it possible that such man can
play as many parts as q great actor
and possess mind both broad and
subtle, capa BILE of Vidocq's work."
Nonsense No. 1t is only once in
while that such genius is needed,
and then if he is not at hand we get
along without him, and add another
crime to the list of mysteries, a la Bur-
dell. la Nathan, la Ross, and la
Stewards body.
The basis of the detective work now
is the acquaintance OF detectives with
criminals. Every such fine tooth
combing as this one just finished
enlarges that acquaintance and makes
it deeper. It's frightfully dull and
prosaic, but it's found to be practical
and reasonably efficient. For in
stance, we have large force here in
New York under Inspector Byrnes
and Superintendent Murray. There
are about fifty full fiedged detective
sergeants, who are paid and rank as
police srrgeants, and there about 100
detectives who rank as patrolmen.
The latter are keenly ambitious to
become sergeants; the sergeants are
equally ambitious not to be reduced to
their former rank as patrolmen.
There you have the motive of the
corps. Each one has his work cut
out for him, and he makes himself
proficient in that during dull times.
A CLOSE ACQUAINTANCE.
Just before the Weeks murder, for
instance, such conversations as these
occurred between Byrnes and his men
"Mr. Ryan, is Jack Sheppard still
living in Harlem, and does he hang
out in McMann's gin mill, and is that
woman still with him."
81 don't think here's been any
change, SIR" is the reply.
"Well, ruin up to Harlem and find
out all about him and what he is up
to. Mr.. Doyle, skip over to Fort
Hamilton and look after your parties,
Blueskin. Red Leary, Guy Fawkes
and the Kid. Find olt all about 'em."
A prodigious amount of knowledge
is gained and kept up in this way.
Give each man several subjects, as
each one has, and the result is that
there is not a professional in town who
cannot be located in an hour if he is
in town, or tracked if out OF town.
This knowledge embraces a close ac-
quaintance with the habits of the
crooks, their mistresses, friends, the
liquor stores and gambling hells they
frequent, the fences where they bor-
row when hard up, and the lines OF
work on which they operate, as well
as the gangs they operate with. 1t is
said that our city detectives know all
this absolutely. But this Weeks case
went beyond all this. When
they ceased their blind and
general work and settled upon
Greenwell, of the lodging-house
gang, as the man, they said that they
knew from the first that the crime
was not the work of good men. Pro-
fessional criminals are always spo-
ken respectfully of by the police as
good men. The truth probably is
that they felt pretty certain it was
not the work of a professional, because
it did not tally with professional meth
ods.
"Good men," said Superintendent
Murray, twill do anything rather |
than shoot when they are cracking a |
place They will give up the job,
run away or even take a beating be-
fore they will pull the trigger. 1t is
only when they are cornered and see
a long sentence staring them in the |
face that they will commit an assault |
and then they prefer not to kill"
But whatever the police knew, they
despised no efforts, however contrary
to reason, that might lead to the cap
ture of Weeks slayer. With very few
exceptions every captain, ward fly cop, |
sergeant and roundsman in New York,
and very many patrolmen besides, in
terested themselves in this case, and
as each one knew some criminals,
criminals friends, haunt or women,
the cinder heap got good sitting.
HELP FROM THE CROOKS.
And thus we come to the curious re-
lationship existing between these
forces naturally SO hostile. The police
made the crooks help them. They al
most always do. Seymour, the detec-
tive, hunted up Redney, the bunco
man. II
"Redney," said the detective, l
want to get on to this Weeks job. If
YOU get tip let's have it, old man
what dye say? Will yer"
Redney says he will, and so does
every crook the detective has such a
conversation with. which is about
every one he meets. While this was
was going on other distinguished
crooks were being tapped on the shonl-
der and hidden to ''be at the central
office tomorrow, the super wants to
see you;" or "the inspector wants
you.5 They came in every instance,
knowing that they must, They were
politely questioned. 1t was interest
INC: it is always interesting to see
how different ones behaved. Some
burglars and sneaks and forgers
consider it great honor to be in de-
mand in this way. 1t fiatters their
vanity to be called on and to find
themselves in an easy chat with au-
thoritv clothed in blue and starred
with gold. They become as loqua-
c;ous as women. Others are sullen
and defiant. They want nothing to do
with authority. They consider them
Thnoa Ia of ara in the